You'll need the E-Value code to take advantage of this deal. Heavier than competing systems.

Bottom Line

The Dell Inspiron 1420 continues to be a bargain hunter's fantasy by giving you discrete graphics, 2GB of RAM, and color splashes for $1,099.

The Dell Inspiron 1420 is destined to populate the homes of school-bound teens, sophisticated and unsophisticated computer users, and just about anybody who is looking for a terrific deal. The laptop's look has changed (for the better), and just because it's priced at $1,099 (direct) doesn't mean you'll get shafted with cheap processing parts. It's one of the few laptops, if not the only one, that gives you discrete graphics, a surplus of memory, different-color frames, and a host of other features that usually cost extra. For this, Dell can easily add another Editors' Choice notch to its belt. Just make sure you punch in the E-Value code (1-DNDMJA1) to get this awesome deal.

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With the 1420, Dell joins the growing trend of offering chassis color options. Frankly, the Arctic silver design that has graced Dell's Inspiron frames for over two years has seen better days. It was time for a new approach. Black with imprints wasn't an option because rival HP had already claimed it. White and titanium are practically synonymous with Apple laptops. The only logical solution was to offer an assortment of colors instead. My configuration came with a Midnight Blue lid, which cost a little extra. Jet Black and Alpine White are standard options, and upgrades to the blue, Espresso Brown, Flamingo Pink, Ruby Red, Sunshine Yellow, or Spring Green cost an additional $29. The new look is refreshing and targets different personalities, similar to the approach Sony took with its consumer line.

At 5.9 pounds, the Inspiron 1420 is heavier than I'd guessed, but that was before I realized it had an 85-Wh (nine-cell) battery attached to its back. With a six-cell battery, you can get its weight down to near that of the HP Pavilion dv2500t (5.4 pounds). Still, it's not quite as luggable as the stylish Apple MacBook 13-inch (Core 2 Duo T7200). Dell didn't skimp on the design materials, though. Unlike the previous Dell E1505 (Core 2 Duo), which was encased in ABS plastic, the 1420's chassis is housed in magnesium alloy. It's a sturdier material that's typically found on business laptops and high-end ultraportables.

I was expecting a typical WXGA (1,280-by-800) resolution on the 14-inch screen, but Dell blew me away with a WSXGA (1,440-by-900) resolution. Combined with a TruBrite screen, it will make you marvel at home movies and digital photos. It's not an LED screen, like the one found in the Dell XPS M1330. With LEDs, you'll see thinner screens and better contrast ratios. I'm becoming a fan of the new Dell keyboards. The full-size keyboard on the 1420 is the same as the one found on the XPS M1330, so you're getting top-notch quality even on a budget laptop. And admirers of the Lenovo ThinkPad keyboard will find the typing experience eerily familiar. The slight edge still goes to Lenovo, though. I've always stressed how important quiet mouse buttons are, and Dell is among the few vendors that listen. Heat is a non-issue because the processor (an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450) runs only at 1.66 GHz. That doesn't mean you can't configure this machine with faster-running processors. In fact, it can go as high as the 2.4-GHz T7700, but with faster components, you'll have to deal with the extra heat. I took the system's temperature with a Fluke IR Thermometer. After running the laptop for 3 hours, the palm rests got as high as 79° F and the base reached a still-comfortable 90°.

Both the Dell Inspiron E1405 and the E1505 (Core 2 Duo) came with excellent features. In that regard, the 1420 is no different. Four USB ports are divided equally, two on each side. A FireWire port lets you plug in a camcorder, and the 120GB hard drive should be enough to store all that video footage. Some XPS features are also carried over to the 1420. A 2-megapixel webcam is situated at the top of the screen, and you can purchase a little remote that sits in the ExpressCard slot for $29 more. You'll find two headphone ports in the front bezel, and I'm really glad that Dell went with a DVD burner instead of the legacy DVD/CD-RW drive. But you won't find a fingerprint reader nor the touch-sensitive media keys found on the XPS M1330. There are other options, though they'll bring the price up: A Sprint EV-DO Rev A modem can be had for an extra $150, and larger hard drives and faster processors are also available.

As most of you know by now, Microsoft Windows Vista is a hungry and demanding animal, and you'll need to feed it with the proper parts. A 1.66-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 CPU is the best that Dell could do for the price. It's still a standard-voltage processor and can handle most tasks, provided it has a good supporting cast of other components. That said, the Inspiron 1420's performance greatly benefited from the 2GB of RAM. You can tell if the system has enough RAM by seeing how fast the icons populate the control panel or how fast picture thumbnails appear in a folder (the more icons or pictures, the better). The Inspiron 1420 sped through this process and my Adobe Photoshop testswhere its score of 1 minute 18 seconds puts it in the same ballpark as the HP Pavilion dv2500t. The HP is slightly faster, thanks to a speedier processor.

One of the rarer things you'll find in a budget laptop is discrete graphics. Dell opted to forgo a faster processor and go for better gaming performance. The nVidia GeForce 8400M GS is the same graphics chipset found on the XPS M1330. It produced decent frame rates on Prey, 3DMark 06, and Company of Heroes, and should impress casual 3D gamers. Hardcore gamers should be on the lookout for the GeForce 8700M GT, coming out soon on a future Dell XPS laptop. With any laptop, any time you're faced with choosing between a nine-cell battery and a four-cell battery, you take the one that will get you more battery life. The nine-cell produced 3 hours 28 minutes playing a DVD movie. Although it adds about a half a pound to the laptop, the extra running time you get with it is well worth the upgrade.

To call the Dell Inspiron 1420 a cheap laptop doesn't describe the whole picture. Sure, the $1,099 is a bargain hunter's fantasy, but the parts and features you get on this laptop are anything but cheap. Through the magic of price cuts and Dell's E-Value code, you can get a standard-voltage processor, 2GBs of RAM, discrete graphics, and a host of other features for a very low price. And the system will only get more affordable.

Cisco Cheng is the Lead Analyst of the laptop team at PCMag.com. He’s a one-man wrecking crew who tests and writes about anything considered a laptop (yes, even netbooks). He’s been with PC Mag for over 10 years and gets occasional headaches from all the technical knowledge he has absorbed during that time. He’d still be snowboarding and playing basketball had he not been through multiple knee surgeries (well, two). Now he spends his time with Google Reader, the iPhone 3G, and his now 3-year...
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